EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in Science, Medicine, Health and Healing in the 21st Century. This site will sift through the vast amount of confusing data and simplify issues that are of interest to everyone interested in a healthy life and longevity. The writings on EverythingHealth are entirely my own views and opinions.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Amazing Mom Performs Self C-Section

Thanks to Anesthesioboist for pointing me to this amazing story that I just have to share.

Ines Ramirez Perez was in labor, alone in a one room cabin in the mountains of Rio Talea, Mexico, with no one to help. The nearest clinic was 80km away and she had 12 hours of constant pain. Since she had delivered a dead baby three years earlier, she decided she did not want to deliver another dead baby and she would rather die herself.

So Ines grabbed a 15cm kitchen knife, took several gulps from a bottle of alcohol and...are you ready?... she gave herself a C-section and delivered a baby boy. She cut a 17 cm vertical incision next to her naval from her sternum to her pubic bone. (A usual c-section is 10 cm cut horizontally low on the abdomen.)

She cut the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and fainted. When she awoke she wrapped a towel around her abdomen and sent her 6 year old boy to get a neighbor. The neighbor was a village health assistant who sutured her up with a needle and thread. Two other neighbors carried the mom and her new baby to the towns only road and drove them to the clinic over two hours away, where she underwent surgical repair. Seven days later she underwent a 2nd surgery to repair damage to her intestines.

That was eight years ago and she has a healthy boy now. It comes as no surprise that she also had a tubal ligation.

She is believed to be the only woman who has successfully performed a self C-section.(For a more detailed report of the story go here)

For those of you who have never seen a C-section, it is major surgery. There are several layers of skin, fat and muscle that need to be opened before you even see the uterus. The uterus must be carefully opened and the baby pulled out. Even under the best of circumstances there is significant blood loss.

tracy: I researched a bit more on this story before I blogged on it and there was some dispute as to whether it was rubbing alcohol or just hard liquor. Since isopropyl alcohol is quite toxic, I am presuming it was liquor. The event occurred about 8 years ago and was published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2004 so some of the details are left a bit open.

Although, if she had died after the section, her baby would probably have died also. She could always get pregnant again and when it was close to 9 months, she could have journeyed somewhere near the clinic. Probably would have been better to just deliver the dead baby than inviscerate oneself.

About Me

I am an Internal Medicine physician who has practiced for over 25 years in Northern California. I was previously the President of the SF Medical Society and Chief of Staff at a large academic medical center. I am currently the Chief Executive Officer for a large Physician and health care provider group in Northern
California. My practice is smaller now
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